The Grosse Ile Memorial

The intention of this monument was to commemorate the immigrants and workers who died on the island during the 105 years that it operated as an immigration quarantine station. The bronze names of 74,000 deceased form long “boats” cast upon an undulating sea/ground plane. A beach of tossed pottery shards and shale pieces form a pathway at the base of a shale escarpment. Nestled in the escarpment like vestiges of a harbour settlement, concrete architectural fragments provide places to sit in, to look out on to, and to read about the memorial.